State Within a State

According to Chermesh, the Israeli industrial relations system has developed as a state within a state, having, by the mid-1980s, gained a high level of autonomy and detachment from political and economic constraints. At the heart of the system is the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labor, which Chermesh asserts must be radically reshaped in order to bring about political and economic control of the system. By tracing the evolution of the system from the mid-1960s, Chermesh demonstrates the limits of economic and legal perspectives as analytical tools in the field of collective industrial relations. Instead he stresses the importance of the institutional setting for planning and implementing sound industrial relations policy. By constructing an analytical laboratory for industrial relations research. Chermesh's study merits the attention of students and scholars involved in comparative industrial relations and the sociology of organizations as well as those studying contemporary Israeli society and economic life.